Helically Wired Flexible Liner for Angled Borehole Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing borehole liners lack the necessary flexibility to navigate the angled bends from a main borehole to lateral drain holes, which are often formed at 90° angles, making it difficult to deploy them effectively.
Innovation Solution
A flexible tubular liner formed from a continuous helically wound wire with a coiled spring-like structure, allowing for fluid communication and enhanced flexibility to bend around corners, along with optional inner wire for rotation and anchoring means to secure the liner in place.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a rigid base pipe is used for the liner, then the liner provides structural strength and stability, but it cannot easily navigate the angled bends from the main borehole to lateral drain holes
Solution Approach 1:
The liner is constructed from helically wound wire or mesh that provides flexibility, allowing it to bend and navigate angled transitions from vertical main boreholes to lateral drain holes while maintaining structural integrity through its coiled configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The helical winding of the wire creates a coiled spring-like structure with inherent curvature that enables the liner to follow bent paths and angular transitions, specifically accommodating the 90-degree angles between main boreholes and lateral drain holes
2Ease of operation
If the liner is made highly flexible to navigate bends, then it can be easily deployed into lateral drain holes, but it may lack sufficient structural stability to maintain the borehole
Solution Approach 1:
The helically wound wire structure provides flexibility for deployment while the interwoven configuration maintains structural stability to support unconsolidated formations and prevent borehole collapse
Solution Approach 2:
The liner combines wire or mesh materials with specific structural configurations that integrate flexibility and strength, creating a composite structure that simultaneously achieves ease of deployment and borehole stability
3Reliability
If wire mesh is wrapped and welded to the perforated liner for sand control, then sand filtration is improved, but the flexibility and ease of insertion into lateral boreholes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The wire mesh and perforated liner are integrated into a single helically wound structure, combining sand control functionality with flexibility, eliminating the need for separate components that would reduce ease of insertion
Solution Approach 2:
The sand control screen is formed as a flexible helical wire structure rather than a rigid welded assembly, maintaining flexibility for easy insertion while providing effective sand filtration through the wire mesh configuration
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables easy deployment of the liner into lateral drain holes at various angles, providing stability, sand control, and fluid communication while allowing for the placement of sensors and flow control devices.
Implementation Method 1
the tubular member is formed from a first continuous helically wound wire provided with a passageway to allow fluid communication across the member. The helically wound wire forms a coiled spring-like structure resulting in a flexible tubular member.
Implementation Method 2
Fluid communication from the outside of the liner to the inside of the liner can occur by bores in the wire of the tubular member. Alternatively the fluid communication across the liner is caused by spaces between adjacent coils of the wire.
Data Source
AI summary
A liner for inserting into a drain hole, comprising a resilient tubular member with a central bore; wherein the tubular member is formed from a first continuous helically wound wire provided with a passageway to allow fluid communication across the member.